Scientists Recording Video of your Thoughts

Scientists have discovered how to “read” minds by scanning brain activity and reproducing images of what people are seeing — or even remembering.

Researchers have been able to convert into crude video footage the brain activity stimulated by what a person is watching or recalling.

The breakthrough raises the prospect of significant benefits, such as allowing people who are unable to move or speak to communicate via visualisation of their thoughts; recording people’s dreams; or allowing police to identify criminals by recalling the memories of a witness.

However, it could also herald a new Big Brother era, similar to that envisaged in the Hollywood film Minority Report, in which an individual’s private thoughts can be readily accessed by the authorities.

Jack Gallant and Shinji Nishimoto, two neurologists from the University of California, Berkeley, last year managed to correlate activity in the brain’s visual cortex with static images seen by the person. Last week they went one step further by revealing that it is possible to “decode” signals generated in the brain by moving scenes.

In an experiment which has yet to be peer reviewed, Gallant and Nishimoto, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, scanned the brains of two patients as they watched videos.

A computer programme was used to search for links between the configuration of shapes, colours and movements in the videos, and patterns of activity in the patients’ visual cortex.

It was later fed more than 200 days’ worth of YouTube internet clips and asked to predict which areas of the brain the clips would stimulate if people were watching them.

Finally, the software was used to monitor the two patients’ brains as they watched a new film and to reproduce what they were seeing based on their neural activity alone.

Remarkably, the computer programme was able to display continuous footage of the films they were watching — albeit with blurred images.

In one scene which featured the actor Steve Martin wearing a white shirt, the software recreated his rough shape and white torso but missed other details, such as his facial features.

Another scene, showing a plane flying towards the camera against a city skyline, was less successfully reproduced. The computer recreated the image of the skyline but omitted the plane altogether.

“Some scenes decode better than others,” said Gallant. “We can decode talking heads really well. But a camera panning quickly across a scene confuses the algorithm.

“You can use a device like this to do some pretty cool things. At the moment when you see something and want to describe it to someone you have to use words or draw it and it doesn’t work very well.

“You could use this technology to transmit the image to someone. It might be useful for artists or to allow you to recover an eyewitness’s memory of a crime.”

Such technology may not be confined to the here and now. Scientists at University College London have conducted separate tests that detect, with an accuracy of about 50%, memories recalled by patients.

The discoveries come amid a flurry of developments in the field of brain science. Researchers have also used scanning technology to measure academic ability, detect early signs of Alzheimer’s and other degenerative conditions, and even predict the decision a person is about to make before they are conscious of making it.

Such developments may have controversial ramifications. In Britain, fMRI scanning technology has been sold to multinational companies, such as Unilever and McDonald’s, enabling them to see how we subconsciously react to brands.

In America, security agencies are researching the use of brain scanners for interrogating prisoners, and Lockheed Martin, the US defense contractor, is reported to have studied the possibility of scanning brains at a distance.

This would allow an individual’s thoughts and anxieties to be examined without their knowledge in sensitive locations such as airports.

Russell Foster, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, said rapid advances in the field were raising ethical questions.

“It’s absolutely critical for scientists to inform the public about what we are doing so they can engage in the debate about how this knowledge should be used,” he said.

“It’s the age-old problem: knowledge is power and it can be used for both good and evil.”

1 comment to Scientists Recording Video of your Thoughts

I agree with you that this technology can be used for both positive and negative uses, but there are a number of compelling reasons why many people would want to have a record of certain of their own specific thoughts and memories. The neurotech company MMT is now offering recording and storage of real-time thoughts and dreams using functional MRI. MMT (www.MilMag.net) uses technologies which have been validated at several major universities, including Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkeley.

Subscribe to Latest Posts

Follow Us

Like Us

Most Popular Posts

Recent Posts

China Rolls Out Humanless Factory
The gravest fear that has rippled through humanity from the technology industry is that, someday, almost all of our jobs will be replaced by robots.
While that fear is often laughed ...

U.S. Removes 3 Nations from Blacklist
The United States has removed Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia from its blacklist of countries engaged in human trafficking.
The change in status was revealed Monday by the Department of State. ...

Gang of Cops Attack in Brooklyn (Video)
Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY — Unfortunately, the sad reality is that yet another accusation of excessive force by the NYPD is hardly newsworthy anymore. But there was something different about what ...

Journalists Under Criminal Probe for Snowden Leaks
A secretive British police investigation focusing on journalists working with Edward Snowden’s leaked documents remains ongoing two years after it was quietly launched, The Intercept can reveal.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service has ...

Jihadi John Now Also on Run From ISIS
Mohammed Emwazi, who is believed to be the killer Jihadi John in several beheading videos released online by the Islamic State group, may have worn out his welcome with the terrorist ...

Immediate Tsunami Risk in Caribbean
The Kick 'em Jenny submarine volcano near the island of Grenada may erupt within hours and could pose a tsunami threat for countries in the Caribbean, the Pacific Tsunami Warning ...

Humanity: Plausible Roads to Extinction
What are the greatest global threats to humanity? Are we on the verge of our own unexpected extinction?
An international team of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers at Oxford University's Future of ...

Analysts Voice Major Concern Over Oil
Morgan Stanley has been pretty pessimistic about oil prices in 2015, drawing comparisons to the some of the worst oil slumps of the past three decades. The current downturn could ...

Documents Allegedly Prove MI5 Pedophile Coverup
Britain’s MI5 security service covered up for pedophile members of the UK government under then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to avoid political embarrassment, local media reported Thursday, citing a recently ...

The WiFi Network Hacking Drone
Leaked emails between Italian spyware vendor Hacking Team and Boeing subsidiary Insitu revealed that drones carrying malware to infect targeted computers via Wi-Fi by flying over their proximity is close ...